Sometimes your weaknesses become your greatest strengths. That is certainly true for Eleanor Burns. Eleanor was born in 1945 and began sewing as a young child. She remembers sewing things on a crank-handle toy machine using fabric from her Aunt Edna’s chicken feed sacks. After earning her Bachelor’s degree in education, Eleanor completed graduate work in special education at Penn State University. Because Eleanor has dyslexia, she developed an extraordinary ability to simplify tasks and teach them to others.

In 1978 Eleanor Burns published her first book, Make a Quilt in a Day: Log Cabin Pattern and revolutionized the way people make quilts. Eleanor used rotary cutters rather than scissors and introduced an assembly line method for piecing quilts. She also wrote concise, step-by-step directions that were easy to read and understand. Essentially, Eleanor used her understanding of dyslexia and effective learning to make quilting so easy that even a novice could make a quilt in a day! By the way, Missouri Star carries the sixth edition of this important Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day book.

As she continued to refine her technique, develop patterns, write more than 100 books, and teach quilting classes, Eleanor developed quilting rulers to make it easier to cut quilt pieces and square up quilt blocks. We carry many of these Quilt in a Day rulers. We offer the Triangle Square Up Plus Quilt in a Day Ruler in several sizes–4½”, 6½”, and 9½”. Would you like to finish your quilt with a scalloped edge? If so, you might like the Scallops, Vines & Waves quilting template. It comes with a detailed instruction booklet, but this short demonstration video will give you an idea how it works. Are you planning to make a Flying Geese Quilt? Then you might want to look at the Flying Geese quilting templates by Quilt in a Day. You may also like the Fussy Cut Ruler Set or the Original Log Cabin Ruler.

No matter which Quilt in a Day rulers you choose, you can be sure that they were thoughtfully designed and tested by Eleanor Burns to assure that your quilting experience is fast and fun rather than frustrating!